Today's businesses operating in the electronic commerce environment have a unique challenge in recording contractual agreements made by voice over electronic appliances such as telephones, personal computers, and wireless devices. While paper documentation has been the traditional method of recording contractual agreements between buyer and seller, paper contracts are incompatible with electronic commerce since the offer and acceptance are usually agreed to entirely within the electronic realm. A paper sales contract will typically involve a buyer providing their signature signifying that they understand and agree to the terms and conditions of the sale. This signed contract then provides a paper-based trail that can form the basis for the non-repudiation of any dispute surrounding the sale. Even for businesses incorporating paper-based processes, the process of reconciliation in the paper environment is expensive due to its inherent people intensive nature.
In electronic voice transactions, there is no effective method of capturing transactional information for the purpose of non-repudiation. Call centers, which commonly receive voice authorizations for goods and services over the telephone, typically either record entire client conversations or do nothing at all. Those that do record client conversations can use the recordings to replay original offer and acceptance portions. For calls of long duration, portions of contractual terms and conditions and acceptance of terms and conditions can be captured using Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) systems. However, because of the high costs involved in capturing, storing, and retrieving the correct information from data files, the utilization of CTI systems tends to be limited to less frequent transactions of a higher value. Furthermore, either buyer or seller can easily challenge the authenticity of these non-secure files.
In an attempt to deliver authenticity to the capture of verbal transactions, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems use a Value Added Network (VAN) to assure sender and receiver of the authenticity of a message, and provide all interested parties with tracking tools to ensure messages are received. However, VAN's do not encrypt information, again inviting challenges to an original seller's terms and conditions, or to the acceptance by a buyer. In addition, digital signatures have been gaining greater acceptance in the courts, but are primarily focused on pen-based signatures that utilize biometrics. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a trusted medium by which the secure transfer of information between parties can be completed. However, although there is an implicit assumption that buyers and sellers are working in an environment of trust, the need for non-repudiation of verbal contracts remains.
Speech recognition technology enhances the ability to complete more transactions by using voice to augment existing transaction systems. Voice can be transmitted over systems such as Publicly Switched Telephone Systems (PSTN), mobile or cellular traffic, two-way radio, campus systems, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). While advances in voice recognition technology have taken place, no method exists to capture the nature, intent and agreement surrounding a verbal contract within a voice transaction. What is needed is a simple and inexpensive method for the verification of original verbal contracts within verbal transactions that is difficult to dispute by either buyer or seller.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved method of recording a verbal transaction.